President's Message

It is a great honor to serve the Friends during these challenging but exciting times. Our mission is to optimize the cemetery's potential as a cultural resource through education, preservation, and promotion of Mount Hope Cemetery's unique heritage. All year long we have dedicated, enthusiastic volunteers working to fulfill this mission. We share a passion for historic preservation and education, and we all love what we do. Who could imagine an all-volunteer organization spearheading so many projects to preserve this community treasure and share its historic significance with people all over the United States?

In the past year we have repaired and reset 437 gravestones – all of this work done by professional craftspeople with credentials for historic preservation. This is expensive – but once these repairs are made, we are committed to preserving what we have invested in. The funds for this delicate work come from our membership income as well as community grants and donations.

Our commitment to education is reflected in our rich tour program – from our walking tours three times a week during the spring, summer, and fall, our weekday tours for school children and adult groups, our private tours, bus tours, and our year-round speakers bureau where our knowledgeable tour guides go out into the community to give talks. After a year without tours, we are all excited to be interacting with our public again.

We are dedicated stewards of this rich resource. You will find us planting trees, cleaning stones, tagging trees, and removing invasive species. We preserve the habitat for our native plants, trees, and wildlife. Our cradle grave program, now in its third year, has greatly expanded this year as many buried and abandoned cradle graves have been discovered and repaired. Many new gardening volunteers are joining this program, adding splashes of color amid venerated graves.

Mount Hope, a municipally-owned cemetery, is an invaluable resource, and we want our local citizens and visitors as well to appreciate the history of our community and celebrate the contributions that the residents of Mount Hope have made to our nation's history. Our you tube channel features “Mount Hope Moments" -- digital vignettes based on research into Mount Hope's rich cultural history. Our “Mourning in the Mourning” presentations provide a forum for our members to present their research to a national audience. Our quarterly magazine, the Epitaph, shares Mount Hope stories and events.

We appreciate your support. Become a member, join us for tours, donate to our projects. Take a walk in this vast wonderland and enjoy its beauty throughout each season. Celebrate our new website, and visit our Facebook page. And become a volunteer! We would love to have you. Remember, we all can do something to preserve and promote this national landmark.

Mount Hope Cemetery belongs to each of us!